1. Field
This invention relates to exchanging services and more particularly relates to exchanging services in a distributed system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data processing systems are frequently configured as distributed systems. A distributed system may include a number of devices, such as servers, routers, and storage devices. The distributed system may service a computing task by assigning one or more servers, routers, and storage devices to the task.
Unfortunately, the administrator typically must understand the detailed requirements and capabilities of each device in the distributed system in order to configure the distributed system to perform a specified task. For example, if the administrator wished to couple a storage device to a server, the administrator would need to know how to manage the storage device as well as understanding the storage requirements of the server in order to configure the server and storage device to exchange services.